and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1:5-7 ASV). Now, when he bears down on his thesis, in bold opposi tion to the barrenness of nosticism, he points out that such fellowship with God, in the light, must bear precious fruit. That fruit is love — a fruit which is manifested in the Christian’s life because it is first received from the gra cious hand of God. “ Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love” (4:7,8 ASV). This outworking of God’s love must not escape our notice; nor can we afford ever to cease to praise Him for
B y t h e year 90 A.D., when John was writing his epistles, a philosophy was rearing its strange and disfigured head in such a way as to threaten the peace of the early church. Known as gnosticism, it was a philos ophy which put knowledge in the place of faith as a “means” of salvation. It involved a strange combination of the denial of the humanity of Jesus. As a natural corol lary to such a position, the movement was marked by an unethical, loveless intellectualism. It was all head and no heart! It was clothed in the coldness of a so-called special enlightenment, while underneath it lacked the life and warmth of a personal love! John wrote his first epistle, in part, to correct this false teaching and to offset its vicious infiltration into the ranks of those early Christians. That is why you find him
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WHAT MANNER OF LOVE mm. 111? ¡||( Edgar F. Reibetanz / Pastor
Butterose Baptist Church, Long Island N .Y
it. While we realize that the foundation of our relation ship with God is faith in the Son of God, faith in Him as our personal Saviour, yet we are prone to think of our Saviour and our salvation as being rather remote. We fail to catch the overpowering reality of the fountain of personal love that faith opens to every one who believes. “ Herein was love manifested in us (in our behalf, or toward us), that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him . . . Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (4:9, 10 ASV). In the light of this powerful operation of God’s love in our behalf, it is no wonder that John cries out, “ Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!”
emphasizing the profound truth of God’s love for us and our personal relationship to the God who is love. Basically the burden of the letter is the Christian’s fellowship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. There fore in chapter one, at verse three, John reminds us that “ that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” The nature of this fellowship is described as “ walking in the light,” with the abundant reason that “ God is light.” John’s words are clear and emphatic: “And this is the message which we have heard from him and an nounce to you, that God is light, and in him is no dark ness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him
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